Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Bryan Woo Is Back as Mariners Look to Recover From Middling Road Trip

Episode Date: May 11, 2024

Having run into a buzzsaw called the Minnesota Twins, the Mariners finished their recent road trip with a meager 3-4 record. Now they return home where the surprisingly pesky A's and their world-beating bullpen await. Ty and Colby are joined by Sea Level's Ben Ranieri to discuss what they learned in that Minnesota series, their overall thoughts on the Mariners as the 40-game mark nears, expectations for Bryan Woo's 2024 debut, and more.Ask us questions!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DoorDashGet all your Mother’s Day gifts, all in one place and get 50% off your next order, up to $15 when you spend $15+ on your next flower, convenience, grocery, or retail order now with code LOCKEDONMLB. That's LOCKEDONMLB. Order using DoorDash today. Terms apply. Monopoly GO!Get in the game and join your friends. Click HERE to Download MONOPOLY GO! now free on The App Store or Google Play. PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedonmlb and use code lockedonmlb for a first deposit match up to $100! eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARANTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – win or lose! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Mariners are back home after a three and four road trip. What did we learn from their series loss in Minnesota? We'll talk about it with Ben Renieri coming up here on the Locked on Marriss podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day.

Ohoy, sailors. It is Friday, May 10th, 2024. This is Tiding Azolice and Colby Petnode for the Lockdown Marrists podcast. Thank you so much for making us your first listen. Subscribe, like, and turn on alerts. If you're watching on YouTube, or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear. And if you're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments below.

We'd love to hear from you. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. You can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description of this episode. And today, Colby and I are joined by Ben Reneery of Sea Level on Substack. You can check out Ben's work over at C-level BR.com. We're going to look back on the mayor's recent road trip. And then we'll get you set for this weekend series with the A.

but let's talk about that road trip first got a nice series win in houston then ran into an absolute buzzsaw in Minnesota lost your first series in a while did we learn anything from that series though ben kick us off yeah i mean part of it is just that the twins are playing the best baseball of pretty much anybody in the league right now so that's a big part of it and i don't think it's totally surprising when you look at the result like they had a chance to win three of those four games and that's the pitching staff that's striking out the most batters in the league, and the Mariners are striking out the most. So it wasn't necessarily a great matchup.

They had a lot of left-handed hitters, which is not a great matchup for some of the Mariners' arms. And they look like a team right now that's best hitter is underperforming, and their second best hitter is injured. And I think we haven't heard a lot about, like, how J.P. Crawford not being there, has kind of impacted them. I think like the consistency and the contact quality of like his at-bats. I know Dylan Moore's done a great job, but like that's not exactly his role.

So yeah, I think as they get healthy, things are going to get better. But I think a lot of this is just like give credit where credits do. The twins are on a heater right now and they're not a great matchup for the Mariners. And it turned out that way. Colby. Yeah, I think we learned that starting pitching is not, in fact, It's not, you know, you have five, 1965 Sandy Kofaxes in your,

in your rotation here. Like, you're going to get beat and those guys are going to have bad days. And aside from Luis Castillo, they all did. They were all terrible in this series. So, you know, George's got a little bit of a built-in excuse as he's dealing with the knee, but he was just getting blasted all over the park. Logan obviously had his struggles yesterday. So, you know, it's pretty fair.

and I saw a lot of people, you know, make this comment yesterday as the mayors were getting, you know, curb stomped that, you know, oh, well, if you don't have historically good pitching, you can't possibly win. And it's like, yeah, I mean, I get that. I get the feeling like feeling that, but the offense supposed to score 13 runs on a nightly basis. Like the pitching was dreadful in this series aside from Castillo. So offense is not great aside from the one game where they score 10 runs. But we shouldn't let the pitching off the hook just because they've been. really good for the last three weeks. It doesn't mean that they get an excuse for what they, how poorly they performed in this series in Minnesota. So, you know, you're kind of lucky to salvage the one game that you did. So, you know,

three and four road trip, not what you wanted, but it is what it is. You're not buried yet or anything like that. So I think we just learned that, you know, this pitching staff is not, you know,

perfect and it's going to have rough turns through the rotation. We've already seen that once at the beginning of the year. and we'll see if this turns into a rough turn through the rotation. We still got a couple more starts to go. But yeah, you just learn that your pitching staff isn't flawless. It's not, you know, five aces. It's, you know, three or four number twos who are going to struggle from time to time. So, yeah, I think that's just the important lesson there.

I don't think this, you know, really points to anything larger than that. No. But the offense, just to touch on them real quick, very 2023 in this series. You know, they score one, then they score 10, then they score three, then they score one. And then to top that all off, like you mentioned, the pitching was a mess in the series outside of the Castillo start. Are we concerned at all about George Kirby, obviously dealing with the knee thing? And then his Velo was down by a full mile per hour on the fastball in that last start. Ben, what did you think about Kirby?

And again, are you concerned about him at all? I mean, it's maybe a little bit concerning. I'm not going to say it's not concerning at all, but some of it might just be like, hey, he just, he doesn't quite have it today. Like, we know he's got the neat thing. We know we're going to give him an extra day of rest coming up here. So like, let's just get him out of this clean. He doesn't have his best stuff anyway, so there's no use in like pushing him to 100 pitches. Like, let's just get him out of here, get him to that extra day of rest.

And I guess we'll just see what he looks like next turn. but I feel like we maybe would have heard something if it, I didn't see anything or read anything about there being any concern after kind of pulling him a little bit early. I know his Velo was down a little bit, but maybe he's just kind of trying to dot up a little bit and stay out of the middle of the zone. He didn't have his perfect command that he normally does.

That's kind of been his bugaboo for a while. When he's susceptible to kind of getting bombed. But no, overall, I'm not too. too concerned about it. And then Colby, what went wrong with Logan Gilbert yesterday? He could have gotten out of that first inning with just the one run allowed, but then allowed four more runs with two outs. So that day could have, in theory, looked a lot different from him had he been able to work out of that.

But what played him yesterday? What did you make of his day yesterday? He was just in the middle of the plate. There's really not much to it. We know that Logan can't struggle against lefties. he's really mitigated that recently, you know, thanks to the splitter and the cutter. And he has these other weapons, but he just didn't have them yesterday. He wasn't good.

He wasn't sharp. You know, it was just really spotty control and command. It's just, you know, Gilbert, we know that his fastball has regressed in recent years, which is fine because it's coincided with like a really good splitter and a really good slider and a really good, you know, cutter. So it's fine. Like, the fastball is still good. but if he just doesn't have anything like yesterday, it's not going to go well.

So he got ambushed a little bit, you know, and that's going to be a common theme with particularly Logan and George's. They know you're going to throw strikes. They're going to go out there. They're going to attack. Like they are going to be aggressive with you. And sometimes that'll work. Other times that plays right into your hand.

And yesterday, Logan, he just didn't have a counter punch. So he just got knocked all over the yard and he just didn't have a way to respond. So nothing too terribly concerning there. It's just unfortunate, you know, it happens. But he's going to be better. Like there's no doubt about that. One bad start doesn't, you know, completely overshadow how good Logan was in his other, what, seven starts, six starts, whatever it is now. So, yeah, it was tough to watch.

You know, it sucks for Logan. But it's just a bad start. Like it really is. There's nothing to it. He's just in the middle of the plate. and they made him pay for it. So hopefully more of a hiccup than anything for the Mariners in this past series. Obviously the pitching was bound to have a bad series like this.

Hopefully they're able to bounce back against the A's. We're going to talk about that series a little later on. But before we do, this weekend the Mariners are going to reach the 40 game mark on the season. So let's do a little bit of a check-in here in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by Stitch Fix. You know that instant confidence boost you get from an outfit that makes you look really good? That's what I get with Stitch Fix. Easily upgrade your wardrobe this year with a professional stylist that helps you find new on-trend favorites that will work just for you.

I just get my stylist, my size, style, and budget preferences. I order boxes when I want and how I want. No subscription required. And they send five just for me pieces plus outfit recommendations and pro styling advice. I keep what works and send back the rest and if you don't love something just send it back shipping returns and exchanges are always free style that makes you feel as good as you look get started today at stitchfix.com slash MLB and get $20 off your first fix that's stitchfix.com slash MLB for $20 off stitchfix.com slash MLB must redeem within seven days of

sign up. And you're listening to the locked on Marrars podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen. You can catch the Mariners upcoming series with the A's on the Mariner's hometown broadcast with SiriusXM via the SXM app. All you have to do is search Mariners.

So guys, we are inching closer to the 40 game mark. So now that we're here at a nice little round number, let's do a little bit of a check-in. And this is more so for Ben because Ben hasn't been around here for a while. than for Colby and I.

But Ben, what are your overall thoughts, concerns, et cetera, about the Mariners at the moment? I kind of feel like way too many people are acting like they're like 10 games over or under 500. Like, ultimately when I look at this, I think it's probably a good thing that, like, I don't think their offense is going to be this bad because I don't think Julio's as bad as he's been. Some guys are showing maybe some signs of getting a little bit better, and then you can get hopefully J.P. Crawford and Dom Canzone back somewhat soon. So I don't think the offense is as bad as they've been. And I think it's probably a good thing that the legendary pitching run kind of coincided with the offense being bad. Like you didn't waste both of those bullets at once.

And so hopefully when the offense kind of starts to heat up, they can just, kind of maintain here. But ultimately, like the strikeouts and stuff like that, it's a little concerning for sure, as I've been very fun to watch. And a lot of people are blaming the hitting coach. But at the end of the day, and ultimately, I was kind of going back and forth with Ryan Divish yesterday. It's kind of like, well, like whenever I've played, like you hear the things that

coaches say, like you listen to the things that they say about approach and stuff like that but ultimately when you go in the box like it's you like it's you that has to see the pitches it's you that has to take the swings um and they just they just need to be better uh maybe they need to like simplify things a little bit or whatever but there's a lot of hitable pitches that they're just missing and a hitting coach can't help with some of that stuff they're going to get better um but yeah that's kind of where i'm at yeah the hitting coach isn't fouling off middle middle fastballs for Julio. Right.

Colby, do you have any thoughts, concerns, et cetera, now that we're pretty much at the 40 game mark? You know, I'm a bit concerned about Ty France simply because he's not hitting fastballs at all. And if you can't hit fastballs in the major leagues, you are DOA.

Like, you're toast. There's no coming back from that. This year he's sitting a buck 92 on four seamers. he's slugging 288 like that's that's not going to play so we can talk about you know how great it is that he's hitting the ball harder which he is he's chasing less which he is and those are both you know in theory positive signs but he's also swinging and missing inside the zone a lot

like his in zone contact rate is down almost 10% like and it's mostly because of the fastball like he's crushing breaking balls uh you know curbauls sliders he's hitting 351 with a 469 slug against, you know, sweepers, sliders, curb balls and all that. So it's not a pitch recognition issue. It's a timing issue right now. And if it's a timing issue, that's good because that's something you can actually fix in season.

Like you can get your timing back in track. But again, right now. Just like selling out for breaking balls. It could be or it could be that his timing so out of whack that like the slower pitch actually allows him to, you know, get the bat through the zone at the proper time. So we know that Francis Swing has a lot of moving pieces to it. We know that, you know, it's not the quickest. bat through the zone, although that has gotten better, which is led to obviously the exit

Velo increase. But again, at the end of the day, if you're swinging and missing, you know, in the zone, and the pitch you're swinging and missing that in the zone is primarily a four-seem fastball or a two-sing fat, it doesn't matter, a fastball. That's a red flag. Like, that's a massive red flag. Because again, it's not a bat's, it's not a bat speed issue. Like, it's a timing issue. And so, again, part of this is good. It means he can get his timing back. Like, it's not, it doesn't appear to be anything injury related or, you know, not necessarily a major mechanical fix that needs to be implemented.

But if you can't hit the fastball, you're screwed. You have no chance. They have a lot of guys like that right now. Yeah. Yep. But it's France right now is the concern for me because he's also starting to strike out a little bit more the last 10 days or so. And like,

tie France with his profile, 25% K rate, not going to, it's not going to be good. Like you cannot survive at 25%. So he just doesn't have that power. Like Julio can survive at 25% because he's going to hit 30 bombs in theory. So like Ty France is not that guy. So he's got to hit the fastball. But I mean, it's it's type France is kind of the guy to pick on right now because, you know, Mitch Garver and Luke Rayleigh have started to hit a little bit recently.

So now we kind of but it's also. But it's also like we talked about on our France episode a couple of days ago, there's actually a potential alternative here that we can talk about like an actual tantal alternative. Well, no, not even Tyler Locklear. I'm talking about just Luke Rayleigh at first space, right? And the difference between, you know, because like, look, you know, people are going to mention how much Rayleigh struck out this past year and how much he's striking out right now and how little he's walking right now. But you can strike out like you talked about with, with Julio, you can strike out a lot as long as you provide value in other areas. The problem is Thai France right now isn't providing value in other areas. At least Rayleigh is hitting some. He's significantly. more athletic than France. He can play multiple positions and therefore gives you more roster flexibility. He's just a more valuable player right now as a whole. He'll get the chance to fix it. I mean, like, there's no reason to like not give him the opportunity here, especially until at least Canzone comes back. And then you can have a real conversation about like, okay, do we just kind of platoon Rayleigh in France? Is that the new platoon that we're working with here? So he's going to get an opportunity.

I'd say he's got at least a month to kind of start to figure this. out but you know it's just kind of a troubling trend we've seen since the elbow injury he had back in 2022 came back from that wasn't quite as good came back last year had a really down year and now he's kind of continuing this this gradual decline despite some serious changes and you know him putting in a lot of work so well and at the very least last year he had a solid first half he was pretty dang good in in april and was solid in may you're not even really getting that right now out of him so Or, you know, at least you were able to extract some value out of Thai France in 2020. Right now, you really aren't.

Yes, there have been positive signs in terms of the bat speed and the hard hit rate, et cetera, and the lower chase rate. But again, he's missing more pitches inside of the zone. And you mentioned those fastball numbers. That's a major, major concern that has to be rectified very soon. Or again, once Dom Kanzone gets back, I think you're going to have to have a real conversation of France isn't producing. So, Ben, let's talk about this third.

base platoon. We talked a lot about it this off season. I went on your show and talked about it. You came on this show and we talked about it. Ad nauseum. And we were, you know, along with Colby, we were one of the very few that were pretty high on the third base situation in Seattle. And so far it's worked out, I think, beyond our wildest imaginations here. Josh Rojas has been nuts. Luis Reyes has been really solid. What have you made of the third base situation? I mean, I think it's been, like, I didn't really have much concern about Rojas. I don't know why so many people were concerned that that was just going to be an absolute black hole. He's been a good player in the past.

And, like, basically immediately, once he got to Seattle, he was a good player. And, like, I got to see him up close in spring training. And he stood out to me. He definitely, like, has made some adjustments. And he's got some pole-side pop now that he didn't seem like he had before. So I think the big concern at the beginning of the year was like defensive. Like how is this group going to look defensively? And Luis Sirius looks really good over there.

Yeah. And I think that's one thing that like I kind of talked about with Shannon Dreher a week or so back. It's like Perry Hill always talks about how it takes a month for these guys to like act for these changes that they're making. defensively to kind of soak in, especially when they're like a new player coming over and like learning a new way of going about their work and stuff like that. And he seems to have really taken to those changes. And it's been as good as you can ask for. Arias is like, and I talked about this with a guy who covered the Brewers when he was in Milwaukee. He was basically saying like, when the game is on the line, there's something about him that you want at the plate. Like,

It seems like he'll get an O2 count, but then he'll get hit by a pitch or something, like miraculously. Or he'll just come up with a big hit. Like the third baseball tune has been nails. And it's been really fun to watch. Colby, any final overarching overall thoughts on the mirrors? They got to start hitting. And I know they got to stop striking out as much, which I know is obvious. But it's not the biggest issue.

It's an issue. but it's not the biggest one. They got to start slugging more. They have to get more doubles and more home runs. And if they did that, the strikeout rate would be, you know, less prevalent.

We'd be talking about it less. Obviously, if they strike out less in theory, they should get more hits, which should help the on base. But it's not like if you eliminate all their strikeouts, they all become hits. Like,

a lot of those are still outs. So to me, it's about, you know, sluging. Like they're 22nd, and I think, in on base and 23rd and slug.

Like, that's a bigger issue than the strikeout rate. But, Yeah, I mean, like we've talked about with would also help quite a bit. Yeah, like we've talked about with individual players. Like you can make strikeouts more of an aesthetic issue rather than a legitimate issue if you're producing in other areas. If you're slugging more, right? Right.

Well, I mean, like just look at last year. Seam, they second highest strikeout right in the league. They were ninth and WRC plus. They just weren't consistent with it. That was the problem of last year's offense. And it just kind of looks like they've carried it over to this year, despite bringing in new guys. Yeah, significant turn up on the on the major league roster, which is what makes this so mind boggling, especially with, you know, so many guys that they brought in who didn't have really strikeout issues, historically speaking, at least. So, yeah, it's been it's been puzzling some of the issues that have played the Mariners here in the first 38 games of the season.

And hopefully they're able to shake those. And, you know, they could start tonight against this Oakland A's team that's coming to Seattle. We're going to talk about that series coming up here in just a moment. But first, a reminder this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by PolicyGenius and DoorDash. Choosing the right life insurance policy is a very important and overwhelming decision. And you want to be able to feel fully confident making that decision. Now you can with Policy Genius, which is the country's leading online insurance marketplace. The Policy Genius, you can find life insurance policies that started just $292 per year for one,

million of coverage. Some options even offer same-day approval and avoid unnecessary medical exams. Plus, your life insurance policy through your work may not offer enough protection for your family's needs. Even worse, it may not come with you if you leave your job. PolicyGenius gives you unbiased advice from a licensed expert support team, and there are thousands of five-star reviews on Google and Trust Pilot from customers who found the best fit for their needs through PolicyGenius. Check life insurance off your to-do list in no time with PolicyGenius. Head to PolicyGenius.com

locked-on MLB or click the link in the description to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. That's PolicyGenius.com slash locked-on MLB. Want to make Mom smile? Start Mother's Day with flowers. Her surprise her with gifts from the brand she loves delivered the very same day with DoorDash. Does Mom have a sweet tooth? Is she a tech enthusiast, a beauty connoisseur, or is she outdoorsy?

No matter what she's into, you can make her smile with a fruit or flower bouquet, makeup, tech gear, workout wear, and a whole lot more. Shop with savings that would make her proud. With a DashPass membership, you'll save with a $0 delivery fee and reduce service fees on eligible orders from DashPass merchants that meet the minimum subtotal, other fees, including service fee, and terms apply. Get all your Mother's Day gifts all in one place and get 50% off your next order, up to $15 when you spend $15 or more on your next flower,

convenience, grocery, or retail order, now with promo code Lockdown MLB. That's LOC, KED, ON, MLB. Order using DoorDash today. Terms apply. And you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Thank you again for making us your first. Listen and once again, you can catch the Mariners upcoming series with the A's on the Mariners hometown broadcasts with SiriusXM via the SXM app. All you have to do is search Mariners.

So let's talk about this Oakland A's team, which has actually been not bad somehow, some way. A lot of that has been that bullpen, which leads me to my first point here, my first key to the series for the Marrars. Get a lead and hold it early. Do not face Mason Miller or Lucas Erseg or even Austin Adams, former Mariner, down. That would be preferable in this series. So Ben, what are your thoughts on this A's team and the series overall? Yeah, you better get to their starting pitchers. Because if you don't, teams have not had success against those three.

I've had a chance to tune into a couple of their games, mostly because I like their broadcast crew. But they are nasty in the back end of the bullpen. And their offense has actually been pretty good as well. I know Colby's a Brent Rooker guy, and I did not know this, but he has a 182 WRC Plus. I'm pretty sure. Old friend Abraham Toro has like a 134 or something like that. Yeah, their offense has been competent.

It's been good. It's been like pretty decent, I would say. Not good, but pretty decent. Like I like Shea Lang Lears. He's got a lot of power. So like there are no slouch offensively, at least right now. now. And they have some guys that are, they got some speed as well in some places. So, um, ultimately you're going to have to get to their starters. And, uh, another former

mariner farmhand, Paul Blackburn thrown tonight, uh, he feels like a guy that's, that's gettable. Um, their, his overall numbers are pretty good, but there's some stuff on the peripherals that he might be able to get to him. So it's get to the starting pitchers. That's the big thing. Colby. Yeah, uh, obviously got to attack their starters. But Blackburn, And I think Sears goes tomorrow. They've been pretty good against Seattle, which I mean, they shouldn't be. But I mean, they're not that type of pitcher where it's just like, oh, great, we're facing J.P. Sears. We're screwed.

But he's pretty much owned them. Unless I'm thinking of maybe Waldechuck. I get the two mixed up sometimes. Didn't he pitch in the hangover game after the clincher? He might have, but I mean, he won that one. That probably skews the numbers a little bit, though. He had some success against them. So I was reading it this morning, and I believe, I think they changed it to,

Estes is starting tomorrow. So I don't know if something happened. I think. Maybe not. Maybe not. Yeah. Well, I mean, either way, you should be able to get to the starter. But then again, you should have dominated Chris Paddock and the opposite happened.

Right. Like, you should have torched Woodch Richardson and the opposite happened. So, like, you never know with this offense. They could score 10 tonight. They probably score two. Insert pitcher here. And the same conversation applies every single time when it comes to this Marin's offense right now.

Yeah. For sure. So, yeah, you got to find a way to get to the starter. If you can get to the middle of their bullpen, you can attack that as well. It's really those back three guys. So pretty much have a lead, you know, after six and you're doing okay. However, it's going to be really important, too, for the Mariners starters to get pretty deep in this series because the bullpen, the middle bullpen in particular got used a lot in Minnesota because, you know, Hancock only went four. The Kirby only went, what, five, four, whatever.

Gilbert only went for yesterday. Like you've had to cover a lot of innings the last few days. Now, thankfully you've had that extra arm in the bullpen because you sent down Hancock. So that's good. But, you know, Wu coming in tonight making his season debut, he's probably on some kind of reasonable pitch count, 85, 90 pitches. So it'd be great if he can get him through six, but he's probably only going to go four or five. So, you know, Miller and Castillo after that, they have to really carry the load because if you can get to Spire and Munoz, they're going to be fine.

They didn't really pitch in the Minnesota series. If you have to go to Thornton, if you have to go to, you know, both. If you have to go to Kirby Sneed, whoever, right? You have to go to those guys in the middle. They're going to be worked. They had been worked pretty hard in this last series. So I think it's important for Mariners starters to get pretty deep in these games. Got to go at least six.

Find a way to go six. And then Lou gets kind of a pass because it's his first start of the year. Sure. But, yeah, protecting the bullpen, particularly the middle of it, is a pretty vital part of the series. So Colby, what are you looking for out of Wu tonight? What are you going to be looking for in his start? My favorite pitch in baseball, which on this show I have to call the screw you fastball.

Lots of them. Four scene two seam. It doesn't matter. You want to see the command of that pitch, certainly. It would be amazing if he just, you know, showed a 55 slider or 55 cutter or, you know, the 55 changeup or something like a legitimate usable secondary. pitch. But, you know, for now in his first start, I just want to see him go attack guys, be really aggressive with the fastball. We know he can front door, two seamer to the lefties.

We know he can do that. We know that he can blow you away at the top of the zone. And we know that he can get you a swing and miss even on the fastball at the bottom of the zone. So I'm looking forward to seeing lots of strikes and a lot of quality strikes with, you know, basically here's the fastball. You know it's coming. You know I'm going to throw it, but it doesn't matter. You can't touch it anyways. Like that's what I want to see. 95 that smooth easy delivery just like butter and the ball just exploding out of his hand that's what I'm looking forward to seeing from Brian Wu and if you can go five innings and give up you know one or two runs like that would be exceptional Ben any thoughts on

Wu any other thoughts closing thoughts on this series yeah I'm a I'm a huge Brian Wu guy I got to before I really even knew too much about him I got to watch one of his bullpens up close at spring training last year. And ever since then, I've been just like utterly fascinated by this guy, basically because he just can throw 94 to 96 while it looks like he's on like a Sunday stroll. Like he is so unbelievably like mechanically sound and natural and smooth. He's so fun to watch to me. Sufferless. It's incredible. And he really hasn't pitched that much in his life, which is also amazing to me. It's going to be probably a similar game plan to kind of what we've seen from a lot of

Luis Castillo this year, I think. It's like fastball slider. Hopefully he has like, he can show a change up to at least make him think about it a little bit. But we know they're going to stack up lefties in this lineup. So he's going to have to be able to get those guys out. But ultimately I'm just really excited to get him back. Hancock did a serviceable job, I think, in his app.

absence. But having this true five back, this the true five that we expected back is going to be really, really fun. One last note on Paul Blackburn. They do, so he's really good at inducing ground balls. So they're going to have to get the ball in the air. They do have some guys that have some pretty good numbers against him. Dylan Moore has pretty good numbers against him. And he might not be a guy who would normally be in the lineup. So Dylan Moore and Hanager has really good numbers against him. He's taking him deep like two or three times. And there was one more guy.

Oh, Julio. Julio's got good numbers against him. So maybe a good time to get some of those guys back on track. That would be nice. That would be nice. All right. Before we get out of here, Ben, what do you got to plug? Yeah.

You can follow me on Twitter at Ben Rennery 10. Go subscribe to C-level. You can find it in the link on my Twitter or just search C-level BR.com. But yeah, go subscribe. We got a daily podcast going on. So come check it out. Check it out. It's great stuff.

And since we're on the topic, Colby always gives me crap for not mentioning it, even though he could do it himself since this is his show. But go check out Marooned on Mariners. It's Colby's Substack at SotoSports. Substack.com. There you go. Happy?

That's going to do it for our show. Before we get out of here, a reminder that locked on has lost the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming, of course, streaming channel. on YouTube and now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the free Fire TV channels app. Lockdown Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Lockdown, plus our national shows covering every league.

Find Lockdown Sports Today now available on the free Fire TV channels app. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marrars podcast for Ben Reneery and Colby and Colby Pat node. I'm Ty Dan Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Ty Dan Gonzalez, Ben at Ben Reneery 10 and Colby at C-Pat 11. that's CPAT 1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode.

Thank you again for making us your first listen. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and a beautiful baseball weekend, and we'll see you next time. Peace.